From the tradition of Shri Shankaracharya, He is the disciple just like the Master: Destroyer of tamas of the inner Self, King of Rishis, And from the darkness of the people He is the bestower of light. Greatest of the great, greater than greatness, He is indeed the reason for the welfare of the tradition. Bestower of the calmness in the three layers of existence, Incarnation of Yoga, indeed of Shankara, Whose speech is true speech, Whose demeanor is precise, Whose actions are compassionate, Whose fame is compelling, In the world of all men He is the inner Self. The course of His speech is the incarnate form of Indra. the Creator. O Mahesh Yogi, let Your benevolence be extended unto me, Great Rishi, King of Rishis, Rishi of Gods. From the light of the Himalayas to the level of the plains He resides in the midst of Shankaracharya Nagar.

Sri Ananda Mayi Ma

In 1981 during the Vedic Science course in Delhi, Maharishi sent a large group to the Taj Mahal for a visit. While in Agra, the group heard that the great saint Sri Ananda Mayee Ma was at her place in Vrindavan, which was on the route back to Delhi from Agra. Maharishi enthusiastically said the group should visit her and to take shawls, saris, fruits, garlands, sweets - masses of them - as our gift.

The group arrived at twilight and meditated in a group outside her house while waiting for their chance to go up to the roof of the house where she gave darshan. While the group was waiting two giant white birds flew low over her house - the celestial quality of the sight made everyone gasp.

Dr. Bevan Morris asked the receptionist to inform Sri Ananda Mayee Ma that we were from Maharishi. But the group had to go up in sections of ten as the space was limited. Dr. Morris went up in the last group, and found that Sri Ananda Mayee Ma was sitting deeply withdrawn not paying attention to the people coming and going, and the pile of cloth, flowers, fruit etc. that had been placed in front of her. At that stage she was very elderly, and near the end of her Earth days.

It was immediately obvious to Dr. Morris that she had not been told that this was Maharishi's group. He asked the administrator again to please tell Sri Ananda Mayee Ma that these people were sent by Maharishi to see her. The administrator began to speak to her in Bengali and at the point where he said "Maharishi Mahesh Yogi" Sri Ananda Mayee Ma suddenly sat bolt upright and folded her palms together, and then started grabbing fruits and flowers and wrapping them up in packages, and giving them to us to deliver to Maharishi.

Then she gave a sublime message of devoted greeting and love to convey to Maharishi. The group upon reaching Delhi delivered this message to Maharishi's great joy.

On another occasion Maharishi was doing Puja with Sri Ananda Mayee Ma at her place in Haridwar, but finally Maharishi had to go. He told Sri Ananda Mayee Ma, Ma you stay here and continue, and I will go. She seemed to agree and let him go, but after a few moments got up and followed Maharishi out to the car, walking a little behind him with the sweetness of a small child. There was a mala wala - a garland salesman - with a basket full to the brim with marigold garlands on the street there, and Sri Ananda Mayee Ma pointed to him so that her assistant purchased the whole basket. Then Sri Ananda Mayee Ma took the whole basket to where Maharishi was now sitting in the car, and she tipped the whole basket of garlands through the window into his lap.

Ananda Mayee Ma is considered the greatest lady saint of modern India, enlightened from a young girl, an expression of Mother Divine. She left the world in 1982. It was her custom to send westerners who visited to Maharishi to learn Transcendental Meditation - for example, Peter Wallace, the brother of Keith. Her devotion to Maharishi shows again that we have grasped very little of the grandeur of Maharishi's personality and status, and his role in the universe.

Tat Wala Baba

During the Teacher Training Course with Maharishi in the Academy of Meditation Shankaracharya Nagar in Rishikesh at the end of 1969, a course that included many of the greatest luminaries of the Movement, the course participants asked Maharishi if the famous recluse saint Tat Wala Baba could come to visit the course, as had happened in previous courses. Tat Wala Baba was living in a cave about three miles up in the hills behind our Academy. It was his custom to only come out once a day for one hour to let visitors enjoy his darshan. There was a lean-to just below his cave for this purpose.

He was a very powerful man, very muscular like a wrestler, with matted hair that fell all the way to the ground. Maharishi said of him that he seemed to be in a good state of Unity Consciousness.

Maharishi agreed to invite Tat Wala Baba to come to speak to the course, and sent Brahmachari Shankerlalji, a very elderly and blissful Brahmachari, who had been Maharishi's Guru Bhai when Maharishi was Guru Dev's Brahmachari, and who lived out all his final years in Maharishi's Academy of Meditation in Rishikesh (except for one time in 1970 when Maharishi sent him to Japan for a trip to see the Movement there). Maharishi also sent Bevan to accompany Shankerlalji to go to the cave and invite Tat Wala Babaji.

They drove as far as the could into the forest down a narrow track, and then climbed the final section up the hill. They found Tat Wala Baba had just come out for his daily Darshan and was sitting listening to a Pandit who was chanting slokas from a big book that was open in front of him.

Shankerlalji and Bevan respectfully greeted Tat Wala Babaji, and then Shankerlalji conveyed Maharishi's invitation to come to speak to the course. Tat Wala Babaji immediately stood up, saying to the Pandit and the others who had come to see him: "Maharishiji is calling I have to go," and put on his sandals and started walking down the hill.

He came in the car through the forest to the Academy, pulling up outside the lecture hall where the course was meeting with Maharishi. The lecture hall was approached from the back down a ramp, and as Tat Wala Babaji entered the ramp the course participants could see him coming, and indicated to Maharishi that he had arrived. Maharishi came immediately from his seat, and as he turned the corner up the ramp, at the moment he first saw Tat Wala Babaji, Maharishi's face lit up like the sun from the joy.

There followed a beautiful session of questions and answers with the course with Maharishi and Tat Wala Babaji sitting hand in hand - an experience that no one there will ever forget.

On another occasion a visitor to the Academy went up to see Tat Wala Babaji. When he arrived, he found another visitor there, a businessman from Delhi, who asked where our meditator was coming from. He said he came from Maharishi. The businessman scoffed, saying he should study some Indian philosopher from Oxford instead. So our meditator said, "Why not ask Tat Wala Babaji his opinion of Maharishi," to which the businessman agreed.
Tat Wala Babaji responded to the question, speaking very rapidly in Hindi, going on for about 15-20 minutes. As he continued, the businessman looked increasingly crestfallen. At the end our meditator asked, "What did Tat Wala Babaji say?" The businessman replied, "He said, 'Maharishi knows everything.'"

Devraha Baba

Devraha Baba was a great saint of India who passed away in 1991. So elderly was he that the President of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, more than fifty years ago said that his father had sat at the feet of Devraha Baba as a child - that is, in the middle of the nineteenth century - and Devraha Baba was already elderly at that time. An Allahabad High Court Barrister told Purusha visiting there that seven generations of his family had sat at the feet of Devraha Baba.

In 1982, a group of Purusha visited Devraha Baba at the Aardh Kumbha Mela, in Hardwar. In front of all the people attending his talk, the Purusha introduced themselves as being from Maharishi. Devraha Baba replied, "Maharishi is very dear to me." After saying some other very nice things about Maharishi, he started throwing fruit to the Purusha. That was his way of giving blessings. He did three rounds of fruit-throws to them, which they were told was very special.

In 1989 another group of Purusha visited Devraha Baba at the Kumbha Mehla in Allahabad, where he was residing on a raised platform above the sand banks near the Sangam. The Purusha were with Devraha Baba when he saw a long line of yellow-clad young Vedic Pandits coming across the sands towards him chanting the Veda, sent by Maharishi to greet India's eldest saint.

When he saw them, Devraha Baba suddenly put his hands across his heart and said passionately, "Maharishi has revived the whole Vedic tradition!"

At the Kumbha Mela in 2001, the devotees of Devraha Baba told our Purusha how Devraha Baba would often say that there is a Gyan Yuga coming in the midst of Kali Yuga, starting from a transition period from 2000 to 2020, and that His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is the one creating it!

A Member of the Mother Divine Course

One night I remember we were working on the scientific chart booklets and were going over every single research study. To me it seemed endless and after a while monotonous, and frankly dry and boring. At the same time I was amazed to see Maharishi's unwavering attention and enthusiasm continue for it. I thought to myself that Maharishi must be seeing something in all this that I was missing. In my soul I deeply wished to see how all this scientific literature looked from Maharishi's perspective. In that very moment suddenly my perspective shifted and suddenly what I was hearing was how the laws of nature interacted on the deepest levels. The whole secret of the mechanics of creation as pertaining to the laws of nature was being revealed to me. For the next few hours I was raptly attentive to every word being uttered, and the whole talk became a revelation to me. I attribute the shift in my consciousness that night to Blessings from Maharishi, whose omniscient consciousness noticed my spiritual request, as I would also later find out on many other occasions.

Sadguru Sant Keshava Das

Sadguru Sant Keshava Das was a saint from south India who was considered a great exponent of Bakti Yoga. He primarily composed and sang Bhajans and expounded on the Bhagavad Gita and Lord Krishna's teachings.
In 1996, a group of Purusha, local representatives of Maharishi's Indian organizations, and a local real estate agent were out looking for land for building Vedic Pandit schools. The realtor was a devotee of Keshava Das and took the group to his main ashram, close to the land they were looking at, for his Darshan.

Keshava Das was very gracious to the group. And when they introduced themselves as being from Maharishi, Keshava Das said, "Maharishi is single-handedly reviving the Vedic tradition."

This was a great compliment to Maharishi from a revered saint, as he himself was also trying to revive the Vedic knowledge.

Swami Lakshmanju

Swami Lakshmanju (1907-1991) was the last Acharya of the Kashmir Shaiva Siddhanta tradition. Written accounts of conversations with Swami Lakshmanju include the following comments about Maharishi:
"If you ask me, Maharishi's teaching starts where mine ends and it goes from there to Infinity." Then he added, "Maharishi is the greatest saint to walk the Earth in ten thousand years!"

Raj Mata of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh

(as told by Dr. Neil Patterson)

"In 1976, the Raj Mata of Lucknow, U. P., came to visit Maharishi in Switzerland. She had been a great devotee of Guru Dev when he was Shankaracharya and Guru Dev used to stay at the Royal Palace whenever he would visit Lucknow. Raj Mata told me that she remembers Maharishi when he was a brahmachari serving Guru Dev, but she really didn't pay much attention to him at the time. However, she was very surprised years later, after Guru Dev had left this earth, when people would come to her, people who had known Guru Dev and who had recently seen Maharishi. They would tell Raj Mata that Maharishi is just like Guru Dev. At first, Raj Mata said she didn't believe this. But throughout the sixties and early seventies, people kept telling her that Maharishi was just like Guru Dev and that she should go and see him. So, finally, she decided that before the end of her life, she had to come and see for herself. She stayed with us for about three months. On the day she was leaving, I escorted her to Maharishi's meeting room where she was to see him for the last time and with my assistance she sat on the floor. I protested that Maharishi would not want her to sit on the floor but she said to me in a very heartful tone,
'Oh no, you do not understand. When all those people told me that Maharishi was just like Guru Dev, I came to see for myself. But having been with Maharishi these past few months, I can see that they were wrong. Maharishi is not like Guru Dev, He is Guru Dev. There is no difference between the two. Maharishi got completely absorbed in Guru Dev's Being and became That. Maharishi is not only the disciple who is just like the Master. He is the Master. He is Guru Dev and therefore I have to sit at his feet.'"

A little story about my earlier years of TM and seeing Maharishi for the first time at the Los Angeles Convention Center (approximately 1975-1976) After his presentation everybody went to the side exit door area to see him close up and offer him a flower. I had to borrow a flower as I came without and felt guilty and not very deserving to meet him. In a word I was depressed. As Maharishi came close to where I was standing, suddenly a force grabbed my arm and made me give the flower to Maharishi, I looked into his eyes and gave him the rose. His eyes were so loving and he thanked my as I said Jai Guru Dev. A few steps later he paused, turned and gave a rose to an assistant which turned to me and said that this was meant for me. I was so moved and later pressed the rose in my Bible.